From football to basketball to baseball, Byron dominates
Byron wins big almost every year in football.
But never this big.
Byron often wins big in several other sports.
But never this big.
The baseball team, off to an 8-2 start after winning sectionals last year and reaching the sectional finals the year before, has a chance to finish off the greatest high school sports year of any local high school in history.
“We were talking about that,” Rock Falls baseball coach Donnie Chappell said Tuesday after losing 6-3 Tuesday in Byron’s Big Northern Conference baseball opener. “Do they play water polo? We’ve got to find something they are bad at. It’s amazing. I have never seen anything like what they have done.”
Byron set state records for margin of victory in an undefeated state champion football season and took third in boys basketball, reaching state for the first time. They are the only local school to ever win state football and boys basketball trophies in the same year. Only three other local unbeaten football teams won as much as a regional title in basketball.
And now Byron is gunning for a baseball trophy, too.
“You make it to state in one sport, you are great,” said sophomore infielder Caden Considine, who was also Byron’s biggest star on its football team and a top reserve in basketball. “Two sports, it’s amazing. We’re trying to do it for baseball, too. That would be awesome. Not too many kids get to go to state in two different sports, let alone three.”
For this Byron baseball team, everyone is trying to go to state in at least two sports. Everyone.
HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL
Seven starters in Tuesday’s game also started for the football champs, which won state 69-7 and outscored teams 823-94 on the season. It would have been eight but Ashton Henkel is currently injured. The only two baseball starters who didn’t start in football, Aaron Lorenz and Cooper Mershon, went to state with the golf team.
“I have so many guys who have been through pressure situations before,” Byron baseball coach Dale Hartman said. “That’s something no coach can teach. I am fortunate to have these kids. In this day, many kids play one sport. We’re fortunate we have a lot of three-sport and two-sport athletes who bring all that experience and that winning culture.”
The gold standard — until now — for Rockford-area single-year success was set by Guilford in the 1982-83 school year and Dakota in 2005-06. Guilford won three state trophies, and sectionals in three other sports, in its great year while Dakota is the only school to go unbeaten in two sports (football and wrestling) and was 27-0 before losing at sectionals in boys basketball, going 65-0 in those three sports until then. Add in the baseball team and Dakota finished 87-6 with two undefeated state champs and two regional titles in its other two stand-out sports.
But Byron has already been to state in three sports (football, basketball and golf) and won a regional title in wrestling (17-5). Four of Tuesday’s nine starters would be playing on their third team to reach state this year if the baseball team wins supersectionals: Considine, third baseman Braylon Kilduff and right fielder Kye Aken made it in football and basketball and catcher Kyle Jones, 35-6 as a 190-pound wrestler, advanced in wrestling and started at tight end in football.
Byron has excelled in five sports to Dakota’s four back in 2006. Another difference is that most of Dakota’s stars were seniors that year while Byron’s are all over the map. Five of Byron’s baseball starters will return next year, including the first four hitters in the Tigers lineup.
“It’s all the way through their school. They won state in football with a bunch of underclassmen,” Rock Falls coach Chappell said. “It doesn’t look good for the rest of us.”
Considine is already challenging his dad, who was a Super Bowl champion with Baltimore and a Big Ten champion with Iowa, to become the greatest Byron athlete in history. He ran for 1,630 yards and 27 touchdowns as a sophomore and led the football team in tackles. And if it weren’t for the Considines, Andrew Talbert might be a contender, too.
Talbert, a freshman quarterback, wasn’t needed often in football, but he ran for 154 yards and three touchdowns on only five carries in the state title game. In baseball, he pitched and hit leadoff in his first-ever conference game Tuesday. The results: He went 3-for-3 with a walk at the plate and threw five shutout innings, allowing only two scratch singles.
“He’s been a big addition for us,” Byron coach Hartman said. “He plays shortstop when he doesn’t pitch. He’s very fluid in the field. His bat has really gotten going. He makes us go. He’s such a natural baseball player and he works really hard at it. He expects greatness out of himself. He is not happy with just being OK. He wants to be great. That’s something he’s brought into our program.”
“I just like to go out there and compete,” Talbert said. “Whatever happens, happens. They get a nice bloop hit, tips them. Whenever they get a hit, tips to them. Just have to throw the next pitch and compete.”
Talbert comes along at the perfect time, helping replace shortstop/pitcher Braden Smith, one of the greatest players in Byron’s rich baseball history who led the team for four years before graduating last year.
“He’s really been putting on a show,” senior catcher Kyle Jones said of Talbert. “We have been expecting big things from him and he has been showing it to us.”
The entire team is eager to show what it can do. And plans to reach state for the first time since the Tigers were Class 2A runners-up in 2014.
“It’s kind of crazy thinking about every single one of our fall, winter and spring teams,” Jones said. “In baseball, we’re looking to go to state too, following in the basketball and football teams’ footsteps. That’s all we want to do.”
“The football and basketball teams haven’t raised pressure on the baseball team,” said center fielder Brayden Knoll, who ran for 1,141 yards and 24 TDs during football season, “but it’s even more in our mind to try to get there this year.”
“It’s going to be tough,” Considine said, “but we can go a long way.”
If they do, will there be any room left in Byron’s trophy case?
“Oh, yeah, there is,” Knoll said. “For sure.”
Best overall sports years
Year — School, Accomplishments
● 2024 — Byron, unbeaten 3A state football champs, 3rd in state in 2A boys basketball, qualified for state in 2A golf, 1A regional wrestling champs, Big Northern Conference girls basketball champs, baseball contenders.
● 2006 — Dakota, unbeaten 2A state football champs, unbeaten 1A state wrestling champs, 27-1 boys basketball regional champs, 22-5 baseball regional champs.
● 1983 — Guilford, undefeated 5A state football champs, third in state in boys swimming, third in state in girls golf, sectional champs in boys cross country, girls swimming and boys tennis; state boys golf qualifiers; regional wrestling champs.
Two state champions in same school year
Rockford-area schools that have won team state titles in two different sports in the same school year
School year — School, Sports
● 2005-06 — Dakota, football and wrestling
● 1997-98 — Oregon, boys cross country and wrestling
● 1932-33 — Rockford High School, boys swimming and boys track
Best basketball seasons by undefeated state football champions
Year, School, basketball finish
● 2024 — Byron, 31-3, third place at state
● 2006 — Dakota, 27-1, regional title
● 1981 — Freeport Aquin, 24-6, regional title
● 2000 — Stillman Valley, 23-7, regional title